


The Haunted Trap

by Margie_Paiser (Luna_Page)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Demons, Dog - Freeform, F/M, Gen, Hunter - Freeform, Original Story - Freeform, Romance, Supernatural - Freeform, demon-hunter, inspired by prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-24 02:08:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7489218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Page/pseuds/Margie_Paiser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: You’re tasked with killing a demon. Only to discovered that it’s posing as a therapy dog that has given its owner a new lease on life. The demon seems to harbor no ill will towards its owner, and you decide to let it live. News gets to the other demon-hunters, who have no such qualms and you find yourself trying to protect the very thing you were sent to kill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

The woman looked around the dog-park looking for the guy to come around for his usual round. When she spotted him she smiled wickedly.

He was about to walk to the trap and she held her breath. He was going to be stuck in about five, four, three, two, one...and he kept walking. She frowned. That wasn’ suppose to happen.

“What the...” She stopped mid shoulder stretch when the dog sat down in the middle of the trap and barked happily. “Oh, you gotta be shitting me.”

She looked around and started to jog, it was her cover after all. When the woman got near her target, she stopped near the dog, faking the biggest smile she could manage.

“Aw, he’s so cute!” She said putting her hands on her knees to look at it.

“Yes. Yes he is...” The owner fidgeted on his feet, playing with the leash on his hand.

“Can I pet him?” She asked looking up at the man. He gave her a quick smile, that didn't reaxh his eyes and nodded, his short curls bouncing.

She placed her hand near the dogs nose and he smelled it. The dog seemed to frown at it but then let her pet him. The white eyed dog barked softly at his owner and the man knelt near the pet.

 _‘_ _Undo the trap please.’_ A voice inside her head said and she widened her eyes to look around. _‘It’s me, down here.'_

She looked at the dog again and he barked. His tail was wagging, his tongue hanging on the side he didn’t seem at all ready to pounce on her. He had a goofy look all around him. If anything he seemed more like to lick her face than anything else.

_‘You clearly weren’t expecting this.’_

“Clearly.” She mumbled to the dog and the guy standing next to them made a question sound. She smiled and looked up.

“His eyes are very clear.”

_‘Good save, hunter.’_

“Oh yes. I wante one with heterochromia...you know what that is right?” he was talking a hundred miles per hour but she nodded quickly. “Yes, huskies usually have that, but the people at the training centre only had that one so I got him.”

“Training centre?” The woman straightened up and the guy scratched the back his neck nervously.

The dog whimpered and walked to him, nuzzling his nose on his leg. The three of them now inside the trap. The woman frowned at that behaviour but didn’t move.

“Bob is a service dog, I had to go get him at a training centre...for service dogs.”

“He’s a service dog?” She was incapable of keeping the confusion from her voice, but the guy didn’t seem to notice.

 _‘Watch the tone.’_ The voice in her head said.

“Yeah...” The guy said looked at the husky. “We gotta go...” He stuttered and pulled dog’s leash, but the dog didn’t move.

_‘Now you scared him. Do you know how much it takes for him to actually leave the house?’_

She was surprised by these new informations, and only when the dog whimpered again did she snapped out of her stupor.

The woman walked towards the guy and very subtly dragged her sneakers on the ground, undoing the invisible circle on the gravel.

“Hey!” She smiled once again. “I’m Charlotte by the way.” She extended her hand.

“Hum...” He looked between her hand and her face. It took a second too long, to the point where she was almost letting her hand fall. He grabbed it quickly and shook it. “I’m Adam...”

“Nice meeting you, Adam.” She kept the smile on her face as she placed the earbuds. “I gotta run.” She nudged her head to the pathway and winked at him. “Cya tomorrow!”

He nodded once again rapidly and gave her a tiny smile. The dog owner turned around, to walked to the opposite side of the park and the husky walked out of the circle happily.

_‘See you tomorrow hunter.’_

Charlotte did a couple of laps around the park, trying to gather her thoughts, formulate a new plan.

She had been given an assignment by The Company. Her employer was a covert agency that hunted supernatural beings, mostly demons. Charlie's current mission was a find and destroy assignment. Now the finding part was easy. She was a hunter, she had been trained since she was a teenager to track these things that crossed into our plane. There were signs and she only had to follow the signs to a quiet town in the middle of nowhere. Helmsfirth it was called.

The tracker found that all the signs pointed to a small house near the edge of the city and so she waited until the perfect moment arrived to grab the guy. She had planned on taking him alive, probably stunning him with some incantations on the spot and then exorcise the demon out of the guys body, hoping it wouldn't kill him in the process. It probably would.

But she didn't expected it to be the god damned dog! A service dog?

She cursed under her breath.

Back to square one!

* * *

 A week went by and everyday there she was doing laps at the small park. Charlotte started to use that time to clear her head and think about her next step.

She knew Adam would bring Bob for his walk at four pm. And he was a meticulous scheduled routine. He wouldn’t show up at 4:01 or at 3:58. No, he would arrive at precisely 4:00.

So she would run one last lap around the park and then, inconspicuously walk behind him.

 _‘If you’re trying not to look suspicious, you are failing. Where did they teach how to track? Stalker class?’_ She heard a familiar voice in her head and frowned.

“Does he know?” She said under her breath knowing the demonic pup would hear it.

 _‘About your inability to track someone? No, I don't think he has caught on.’_ His tone was sarcastic but not evil.

“About you…”

 _‘No’_ he simply replied into her mind.

She left the conversation and ran to her motel room, trying to device a plan that could get her close to the dog and assert his motives.

The next day there she was again, but she was about to change the routine a little. She had already ran her laps and when he stepped on the park, she put her biggest smile on and approached him, trying to look as non-threatning as possible.

“Hey Adam.” she said to him, walking in step with the dog and the owner.

“Oh, hi Charlotte.”

“How are you?”

“Good, good. You?” He kept fidgeting by her side, but not in a “leave-me-alone” sense. More like “look-someone’s-talking-to-me. What-do-I-do?”.

“Great!” she over exaggerated her happiness and he gave her a short smile. “How is Bob?”

“Good, I guess. I mean, he wags his tail a lot so, I guess he’s happy.” his eyebrows twitched into a frown for a millisecond as he looked at Bob and then back at her, shrugging. “I think he’s good.”

“Great!” Charlotte repeated with the same enthusiasm from before.

They walked a few minutes next to each other, in silence. Adam would nod every time they passed someone he knew. Charlotte knew he wouldn’t say anything about her walking with him, his awkwardness and anxiety prevented him from being confrontational. He would rather endure and then have a slight breakdown when she left, thinking and overthinking about why she would walk beside him or how he should have said anything or maybe he shouldn’t have said anything at all. She knew this because she had taken the time to investigate Adam, as a human and not a demon. She had found out about his anxiety and depression. And now she took advantage of all she found. It surprised her how not guilty she felt when she thought about doing that. But now that she was actually doing it she did feel somewhat guilty.

“So Adam, what do you do around here for fun?” she asked trying to make small talk.

 _‘What are you doing?’_ The voice asked.

“Hum…” he shrugged and frowned a bit. “I think my idea of fun may diverge from yours.” He paused and then looked at Charlotte’s raised eyebrow. “Not that your idea of fun is bad. I mean, not that I know what your idea of fun is. Shit, that sounded mean. Shit, I shouldn’t curse. I'm sorry.” his speech got faster. “I don't do anything fun really. I walk Bob. That's fun. For me. Not for you probably. Sorry, I didn’t meant it to sound conceited or assume that I know you. I don't know you. At all…”

Bob barked and the man snapped out of his faster than light speech. He stopped in the middle of the gravel trail and shook his head.

“I gotta go.” He turned his back and walked out of the park as fast as his feet would carry him.

 _‘Thank you, for making him feel more inadequate than he already does on a regular basis.’_ The voice in her head scoffed as it faded with the distance.

Charlotte was so surprised by the quickness of the events that she just stood there, in the gravel, blinking.

“Shit.” she cursed and shook her head.

His face had become increasingly red and his eyes became bright as if he was about to cry, but no tears fell, his eyebrows furrowed in an almost painful expression. His voice had raised an octave and his breathing had become erratic. At some point she thought he was going to collapse right there. If Bob hadn't barked maybe he would have. The demonic possessed dog had just helped a someone from having a full blown nervous break down in the park.

“Shit!” she said louder this time.

* * *

The next day, Charlotte waited patiently at the park, but when 4pm passed by, she started to worry. She sat on a bench looking intently at the ironed gate of the park, her knee shaking up and down, almost willing the man to materialize in front of it.

She was about to go over his house to check if he was okay when 5pm stroke. He walked inside the park with Bob at his side and she let out a breath of relieve.

Bob looked immediately at her, while Adam just looked to the ground.

 _‘Why keep up the charade, hunter? Just deal with me already. I've missed a good fight._ ’ His voice was becoming increasingly threatening, but Charlotte didn’t show fear.

Fear was a weakness demons loved to explore. A gateway to the soul. She cursed at him in her head, knowing full well he couldn't hear her. Thevtelepathic connection only worked one way. Demons usually used it to make someone scared and vulnerable so they could enter their bodies. Common people never knew what was happening, thinking it was their own mind voice talking to them. But Charlotte knew, she was trained to distinguish her mind-voice from the demon’s.

When Adam was close enough to her she got up from the bench and walked towards him. He frowned and swallowed nervously and she tried to, once again, look as nonthreatening as possible. For the first time since this whole mission started, she was sincere in her actions.

“Hey.” she greeted him with a soft smile.

“Hi.” he replied back with a nod. She noticed him twisting the leash on his fingers nervously.

“I'm sorry about yesterday.” she blurted out.

_'What?'_

“What?” his eyes widened.

“I didn't mean to make go into a frenzy.” Charlotte said looking at him dead in the eye. “I just wanted to make small talk. I kinda don't know anyone in this town and you seemed nice enough.”

 _‘Liar’_ Bob said into her head and she dismissed him.

“I'm really sorry.”

He gave her a small smile, bigger than the usual corner tugs but not a full blown smile, and sighed. He shook his head and started walking. For a moment she didn't know what to do.

“Hum...there's a movie theatre down street.” He started to talk and Charlotte snapped out of her reverie and walked to him. “They don't have many movie choices, usually older movies, but every so often they get a big blockbuster in there. They arrive later than usual, but you'll be able to see it.”

“How late are we talking about?”

“About 3 months.”

“Damn.”

Adam looked at her and gave her a very deep nod.

“The popcorn is good, though.” he added and Charlotte nodded. “There's a mall about 6 miles.”

“Shopping, yay!…” Charlotte said in sarcasm and rolled her eyes. He shrugged.

“It's not bad. If you’re into mindlessly wandering. What else...let's see. There's the park, which you already know.”

She nodded and he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. “There's the coffeeshop/bookstore down the street, the diner next to it, about 5 antique stores and the...club…” he snorted and Charlotte smirked at the sound. It sounded so elitist for a guy who wouldn’t even leave the house to water his plants. “Its more of a pub than anything else, but on Friday's and Saturday's they grab a local DJ and put some black lights on the ceiling and then it's a club.”

His speech had picked up pace, but it wasn't desperate like yesterday. It was more like he wanted to say everything at once.

 _'He tried to go there one night. It didn’t go so well.'_ Bob had a condescending tone, as if he had somehow warned his owner not to go but he went anyway. _'He is stubborn little thing.'_

“A mall, a park, an outdated movie theatre, a dinner, a coffeeshop, 5 antique shops and a pub...that's it?” She asked and he nodded, but then tilted his to the side as if thinking about something.

“Well, no. There’s also the not so fun places. Police station, firemen, clinic, schools.” He said quickly.

“Hey! School's can be fun.” Charlotte added and he made a disgruntled sound.

“Maybe for you.” He looked her up and down. “Yeah, definitely for you.”

Charlotte frowned at first, but then raised an eyebrow in question.

“You’re a well adjusted human being. I bet school was great for you.” he explained.

 _‘Would you like me to tell him or will you?’_ The demon said and she actually looked at him pointedly.

“Sorry.” He said, the leash once again becoming intertwine in his fingers.

“You need to stop apologising.”

“Sorry.” He looked at her and gave her a grin, which she returned.

They kept walking for about an hour, until Adam deemed he had enough social interaction for one day and decided to tell her goodbye. He turned to walk home and Charlotte watched him leave silently and then made her way to the motel.

Charlie realised she was starting to have some doubts about her mission. Truth was, that thing was a demon. She had always been taught that demons had many faces. The most dangerous one are capable of hiding in children, knowing that no one would attack a child.

Charlotte thought about exorcising him. But best case scenario, the dog would lose all his memories and it probably wouldn’t be much help to Adam. Worst case scenario the dog would drown in his own blood. Exorcisms were a practice only made by the highest ranks in The Company. Not because they needed any special powers, but because it took practice to know when to stop and when to keep going. The human body is not made be inhabited by another soul other than it’s own. Once the second soul enters the body it becomes a parasite, a virus. It will subdue the host's soul and control the body.

The hunter asked herself why she cared about what happened to Adam. She didn’t know him. She met him a week ago. She had talked with him for three hours in total. But yet she couldn’t help to feel sorry for the guy. She had surveilled him and he didn’t leave home much. He would go grocery shopping every Wednesday at 11 am and he would go out to dinner every Friday at 8pm. Other than that, and his usual walk around the park, the man was a hermit. And everytime he went anywhere, Bob followed him, except to the diner.

When he was home, he would sit on his porch or desk by the window and type on his computer. His eyes glued to the screen  as Bob sat at his feet when he was outside. She wondered what would happen if she took away the dog.

“You’re getting soft Charlie.” She said to herself opening the motel room door.

The demon himself seemed quite settled with this arrangement. It was usual for a demonic entity to let itself become the master and not the servant. But not Bob. Bob was just cruising through the world in a grey and white, blue eyed Siberian Husky. And he seemed to be enjoying it. He had many opportunities to attack her, but he didn’t seem to be inclined to do so. Bob, the dog would just languidly walk beside his human and make snide and sassy remarks towards Charlotte and the overall conversation. But he never threatened her, aside from that comment earlier today. He never even showed his teeth.

Was this an act? Was the dog a cover up to get Adam? But why not go for Adam? Lord knows his armour has many holes for the demon to seep through.

It didn’t make any sense to her, but she was sure as hell going to find out what was going on. Even if she had to run a marathon in that god damned park.


	2. II

Two weeks passed. Charlotte and Adam had kept in contact everyday. Charlotte now had a routine. She would go to the park at three thirty, she would jog and he would show up with Bob at four and they would talk or just walked in silence. 

It didn’t bothered her that some times he’d just say hello and made minimal small talk, or that other times he would just talk their heads off. He was funny, awkward and had the greatest timing to make any kind of remark. He would either talk excitedly about something with a smirk on his face or he would let her take the wheel and talk about anything while he nodded and smiled.

Bob was very helpful and even caring towards Adam, walking slower when he wasn’t feeling so good and being more energetic when he was having a good day.

She had payed very close attention to the interaction between the demon and the human. Bob wasn't bothered with her presence, and that surprised her more than anything. The dog had said that, as long and she didn’t try to hurt any of them, he wouldn’t hurt her. Charlie had looked at the dog pointedly. The word's ‘ _hurt any of them_ ’, meaning him and Adam, were burned into her head. Bob wasn't just protecting himself, but he was thinking about Adam as well.

At some point, Charlotte had asked Adam if the dog had ever turned on him. His expression changed into a more thoughtful one and Charlie could see the gears on his head turning. After a few seconds he shook his head vehemently.

“No!” He had said, almost in disgust. “I don’t remember him ever even growling.”

“Never bit you or played rough?”

 _‘Thread carefully, hunter.’_ Bob had warned and she dismissed him.

Adam had shook his head again and Charlotte left the matter alone, not wanting to upset the guy.

The woman had been in Helmsfirth for a month and a half now. Between the covert tracking and research to the present date, she had spent several weeks in the small town. The hunter had managed to keep the Company at bay with constant reports and the lack of evidence against the demonic possession. The Company had very strict rules when it came to demonic possessions. They wanted it dead, but the hunters couldn’t just show up and execute someone, they needed. At best they need to document a bodily change, an eye color change, some power usage. In the very least a demon trapped in a circle.

Charlotte had many questions. but had no way of asking the dog without looking like a crazy -person talking to a dog. She had tried various times to make Adam leave the dog with her. She had came up with every excuse in the book, from letting her take the dog for a jog around the park, to letting her babysit the dog whenever Adam had to go somewhere, which given his antics was right about never. And every time Adam said no.

Charlotte sighed, as she did her final stretches while waiting for the curly haired man to show up. She took her time to look around the park. It wasn’t a big space, like the ones in the big cities, but it was large enough for her to loose sight of someone at the far edge of the park. A stream of water ran through the middle, and had a small wooded area opposite of where she stood, with picnic tables and stone barbeque grills. The grass was green, even with the kids and dogs playing on it every day. Overall it was a peaceful and beautiful park, border-lining on cliche, with the birds singing and the wind weaving through the leafs.

She was looking at two kids running around with a ball, while stretching her arm above her head, when she heard the crunch of the gravel behind her.

“Charlie!” Adam called and she turned smiling. A true smile. She had started to notice that her smiles were becoming more and more genuine.

“Hey you two!” Charlotte knelt down to scratch Bob’s ear.

 _‘I hate you, hunter.’_ Bob grumbled. Even as a demon, he couldn’t resist a good ear scratch and Charlie knew it. And he hated that she knew it.

“Have you finished your rounds?” He asked her mentioning the park with his finger and she nodded. He had remarked some time ago that he refused to run for an extremely valid reason. As in life or death reason. He wasn't built for running, he had noted. “Any more un-wanted guest at the motel?” he changed the subject.

“Yeah.” Charlotte nodded.

The hunter had told him the motel had a slight cockroach infestation. Charlie wasn’t exactly scared of the cockroaches, she could and would kill them with ease. But that didn’t decrease the amount of disgust that rolled through her stomach when she saw the critters walk around in the bathroom.

 

“How can you sleep?!” He retorted with a frown and Charlotte shrugged.

“We have a silent agreement, they don’t get within 4 feet of me and I don’t smash them with my boots.”

 _’Are you talking to me?’_ Bob sarcastically interjected. 

Adam shuddered and Charlotte chuckled. He had an intense fear of crawlers and anything with more than four four legs and or two eyes. Charlotte didn’t care much about bugs, but she'd seem enough to know that critters weren't the worst thing in the world.

“You should go over to Mrs. Jameson’s B&B.” Adam pointed to the diner. The owner of the dinner would rent out rooms to business people or tourists.

“My budget isn’t infinite you know?”

 _’You should ask your friends for an upgrade.’_ Charlie rolled her eyes.

She had justified her presence in town with a “thinking-vacation”, which had made him raise an eyebrow. It meant that she was trying to have sometime alone from herself, away from the live in the big city. Bob, of course, had cackled in her mind, even going as far as praising with her ability to lie so easily.

“Oh come on, it’s just a couple of more dollars. And a roach-free environment.” Adam tilted his head to the side as if thinking about what he said and then nodded. “And much better reputation.”

The motel was known for being the place where husbands would take their mistresses. Adam had this image in his head that the motel was a sleazy looking thing, with dirty sheets and dirty tiled bathrooms. Charlotte had a good laugh as he described what he thought the motel room looked like without even having stepped foot in it.

“I don’t care about the reputation. It has clean sheets...” She emphasised the clean sheets parts as the guy was about to open his mouth to complain.

Adam was about to say something else but a lady yelled his name. He jumped, surprised, his face becoming a shade paler and then going back to normal.

“Hey Adam!” A female voice said and he turned smiling forcefully. 

“Talking about the devil.” He said under his breath as the woman walked up to them. “Mrs. Jameson, how nice to see you.”

He stuttered and pushed Bob’s leash to Charlie's hand, leaving her looking at it as if it was going to come to live. 

“Hi sweetheart. Look Stephen’s computer seems to be having some problems.” Mrs. Jameson smiled and Adam nodded. 

“I’ll take a look at it.” Adam said, the corner of his lips going up sympathetically.

Charlotte took the distraction and knelt down near Bob, with the pretence of givingn him an ear rub. The dog looked at her with what seemed to be a questioning look.

“I need to talk to you.” she felt silly talking with a dog.

_‘What makes you think I’ll go anywhere with you, hunter?’_

“I have to make a report tomorrow.” She adjusted his bright orange coloured collar that connected to his neon green leash. “Either you talk to me or it’s quite possible that next week, you’ll be exorcise or dead or both.”

_‘You are a hunter sent to kill me, and you want me to be alone with you?’_

“Think about Adam.” They both turned their head to look at the shy man talking with the older woman. “I’m trying to help whether you believe it or not.”

_‘Why?’_

“You really want me to make a whole speech in the middle of a park? To a dog?”

“Hey! Sorry about that.” Adam apologised, scratching the back of his neck. “People around here seem to think ‘software-developer’ means ‘computer-technician’”

Charlotte smile widely, knowing that it happened because he would explain what he did to other people with 'I work with computers.'

"Peasants” she mocked and he took an over-dramatic sigh.

They kept walking for a while, with Charlotte giving Bob some serious side eyes. They were mid-stride when Bob back and tugged the leash away from Adam’s hand.

 _‘Keep up.’_ Bob said while running through the grass.

“Bob!” Adam shouted and started running after the husky. “Bob, come here!”

Charlotte jumped and ran after the man and the dog. She reached Adam easily and saw he was starting to breath heavily. He was losing ground, so Charlotte grabbed his elbow and made him slow down.

“We have to go get him. Now. I can’t let him go. He never ran away. Why did he run? I have to find him. Why are we slowing down? I can’t slow down. Charlotte, stop, we need to get him!” He was babbling again a thousand miles per minute and Charlotte had to fight the urge to slap him to make him snap out of it.

“Adam.” She said calmly. When he continued to mumble she grabbed his upper arms and shook him. “Adam!” He looked up at her, his eyes red and wide, his blue eyes becoming bluer as the white of his eyes became red. “Sit down before you have a stroke. I’m a faster runner!”

Before he could answer, she ran after the husky. She saw the dog sitting on the grass, but when he saw her he started running again towards the forest area. She reach the trees. It wasn’t a heavy wooded area, there was a good shade but the trees were far enough from each other not to be forest like.

Charlotte found Bob sitting at a picnic table looking at a dead bird that laid on top of it. As she walked there, he turned his head to her.

 _‘We have to be quick.’_ she nodded and kept standing.

“You need to tell me your end game.” Charlotte crossed her arms and stood straighter. Shoulders squared back, chin up, her whole stance become completely different from the lay-back girl on the gravel path.

 _‘Ah! There you are, hunter.’_ He taunted. 

“Tell me what you want and make sure it’s believable, or next week it won’t be me you’ll be talking with.”

_‘I’m a demon, hunter. If I want you to, you’ll believe anything I say.’_

“You start playing games I start reciting a few prayers for you. How about that?” Charlotte threatened raising an eyebrow challenging the demon.

_‘You’ll kill me and if that's what you wanted, we wouldn't be having this conversation.’_

“Doesn’t mean I won’t do it.” And they both knew she would.

The dog puffed out and looked straight at her with his almost white eyes. They stood in silence for a few seconds and Charlotte was about to remind him that  Adam was, probably in fetal position, waiting for both of them, she heard the demon sigh in her mind. The dog grabbed the bird with his pointy teeth and walked to her.

 _‘A dog is much easier to possessed then a human, you know. Even children’s souls have...strains. Besides, it would take you lot a while to get to me.’_ He started, walking slowly towards the end of the forest and towards Adam. She walked with him. 

“But why a service a dog? Demons don’t like being told what to do. Having to answer to someone’s desires is the last thing on a demon’s wish list. What is on your wish is to cause mayhem _.”_

 _‘Do you know how long I’ve been a body-less soul? It takes a toll on you. And I, by no means, wanted to do anything good. This all came with a surprise. Or better yet with a realisation.’_ They kept walking slowly. _‘My main focus with being a service dog was to cheat.'_ She heard him sight. _'How easy do you think it would be to create chaos in someone’s life when said someone already has a chaotic mind.’_

Charlotte was disgusted by his word, but coming from a demon she wasn't surprised by the brutal honesty.

_‘So Adam came along, and picked me and I happily went with him, thinking about how much fun I could have with him. I started by simply, not doing anything. If wanted me to be quiet, I would bark incessantly. He wanted me to stay, I would run around the house, throwing thing off shelves, chewing on his sneakers. And all throughout my hellish stay at his house, he would keep talking to me, feeding me, scratching behind my ears. Then one particularly miserable day, he went out, but not after I had sank my paws into the ground and didn’t budge making him go by himself. When he returned, he was a mess. I actually know what hell looks like, but he was the one that looked like he gone through it. He was furious one moment and then crying and then quiet and then screaming.’_

“Wasn’t that what you wanted?” Charlie asked, frowning, trying to imagine Adam in that state of mind.

_‘Yes, but I wanted to be me causing it. The mere fact that that a human soul didn’t need a demon to become completely miserable baffled me. That's why we pick the happier ones, the hopeful ones. Because it's so much fun to watch. It wasn't even him that wanted to get help. His mother made him get a dog, or she would move in with him.’_

“Still doesn’t explain why you stayed. And why you helped him.” They kept walking, Charlotte still not understanding the demon’s reasoning fully.

_‘Why did you stayed, hunter? For three weeks.'  
_

“I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t hurt him.” She answered truthfully.

_‘You could have killed me. That way you would have made sure I didn’t hurt him.’_

“He seems to need you.”

_‘Yes, but why stay for a whole month? Why not just tell your people you couldn’t do the job. I've known some who did just that.’_

“I wanted to get to know him and you. I was curious about this whole situation. I wanted to help him, to see how close you two were.”

 _'And so did I. First I reasoned that it would be easier to make him happy and then pull him down. But the more time I spent with him, the less I wanted to watch him be miserable.’_ They could see him now sitting on a bench, his elbows on his knees and head on his hands. He did look completely miserable. _‘I went soft on him.’_

The dog ran towards the desperate looking man, without another word. Adam looked up when Bob barked and took a visible, deep breath of relief. His face went back to his normal rosy complexion from the very pale, almost transparent tone. He placed one knee on the ground and waited for the dog to come to him. The man started to argue with the dog, while scratching the pet's ears. The dog placed the dead bird at his feet and Adam cringed.

Charlotte approached them, a soft grin on her face and looked at both of them. She was still digesting the demon's words, but she couldn't deny that both of them had a connection.

“Thank you.” Adam looked up and mimicked her soft smile and Charlotte nodded.

“All the jogging gotta be for something.” She smirked.

“No treats for you today.” He promised looking angry and pointing at the dog. “He never did that...away from home that is. He likes to bring me birds and squirrels when we're home.”

“I thought only cats did that.” Charlotte frowned at the idea and Bob barked happily.

“Maybe he was a cat in another live.” He joked nervously, still reeling from the previous situation.

Charlotte expression changed from smiling to deadpan to quizzical. After a few seconds without blinking, she tilted her head to side and shrugged.

Demons didn’t have past lives, they never died. Demons were just souls that resided in hell or purgatory and would come up to the surface for fun. They’d snatch a body, live in it and sooner or later they’d be sent back to hell. So what Adam was saying could not have happened. Unless he had possessed a cat before. It had taken her a moment to fully realise that.

After another walk around the park, for Adam to calm down, they parted ways. He had managed to thank her about fifty times in a 10 minute walk. She had rolled her eyes and he had apologised for thanking her so much only to thank her one last time.

* * *

 

In the morning Charlotte sat at the desk in her motel room, in front of her laptop, waiting for the her video-call to get picked up.

Every week she had to give a full report to the Company. They were getting more and more restless about the lack of results and Charlotte was nowhere near reaching a conclusion for her problem.

The call went through a smiling man’s face showed on the monitor. He was dressed in a black suit and a thin black tie, with a crispy white shirt underneath. His blonde hair was slicked back and his brown eyes were observant.

“Good morning Miss Winston.” He greeted and she gave him a respectful nod. “How are you?”

“Good. You Sir?” That man was Nick Kelvin, one of her superiors. He was the one in charge of this, and many other, hunts.

“Good, good. So tell me how are things going over there? Any developments?” He questioned while cleaning his glasses nonchalantly.

“I’m almost getting everything I need for this, sir. A couple of more days and I'll have this whole problem under wraps, sir.” Charlie saw his eyebrow twitch and swallowed.

“Miss Winston, you've been on location for approximately two months. Hasn’t that time given you enough evidence to put the problem down?” He placed his glasses on his face again and gave her a polite smile.

“You see, Sir…” she started, trying to think of an excuse that would give her more time. “Next week, there will be some sort of pagan festival in town.” She lied through her teeth and hoped he would believe her. “It's a small thing, not very publicised. But I feel it could be what he is waiting for. If you give me another week, I can have compelling evidence and I’ll stopping him before anything happens.”

Nick sighed, not amused. He looked up at the ceiling, taking a deep breath, and then back at the monitor. Charlotte was sitting straight in the motel chair, her shoulders tense and her face deadpanned. She lied best when she didn't express any emotion.

“Miss Winston, I cannot have a hunter trapped in a town for 2 months without an inkling of evidence to show for.” Nick smile had vanished.

“I have evidence, just not documented.” This time she was telling the truth and she knew it would give her more time. But it would also mean the Company would have a target now. All they needed was for someone to do the job. “I've had some contact with the demon, like I've told you before. He is most likely ancient and knows our ways. And I've had him in a trap, but not long enough to document it. We were surrounded by people, I didn’t think it was a good idea to make him angry.”

“We already had this discussion, Miss Winston. We already know that your cover is blown. What you told us was that, it didn't matter.”

“And it doesn’t, Sir.” She sighed to herself and looked at her hands before looking up again. “I want to take into consideration the human, that the demon has attached itself too.”

“And that would be…” Nick looked down at the table. “Adam Trembly, correct?” 

“Yes. I still need to figure out if they are working together, but I have a feeling that Mr. Trembly has no idea. If that’s the case, I feel like we should minimise the damage, just in case Mr. Trembly feels the need to investigate the disappearance of his dog. It’s in the Company’s best interests that nobody suspects what happened.” 

“It’s in the Company’s best interest, for you to do your job Miss Winston. And if you can’t, we would appreciate it if you let us know. Might I also remind you that you are dealing with a demon? I never had this trouble with you before. I saw you solve more complicated cases in half the time. This things take peoples bodies and do with them what they want!”

She had the sense not to retort that it's a dog not a person. It wouldn’t help her case to be arguing with the head of the mission about the demons choice in species.

“Yes, Sir. I understand. I will be done with this as soon as possible. But I want to make this by the books.” Charlotte gave Nick a confident nod. 

“Just kill the dog, Miss Winston.” Nick commanded and Charlie nodded. “You’ve got a week, Miss Winston.”

He ended the video-call and she sat in front of the computer for a few moments, staring at her reflection in the dull monitor. She slammed the lid on the computer down and walked to the bathroom. She washed her face with cold water and stood in front of the mirror for a good while.

Her mother always told her that, when faced with a hard choice, one should measure the pros and cons of the situation and then make a decision. So Charlotte did just that. She closed her eyes and imagined a white board with an horizontal line in the middle. On one side of the imaginary white board was the word 'pros' written on the top, and on the other side was the word 'cons'.

On the 'pros' side she added “hasn’t hurt anyone”. On the 'cons' side she added “yet”. On the 'pros' side she added “Cares about Adam.”. On the 'cons' she added “Does he?”. 'Pros' “Town is not engulfed in flames”; “Snarky but non-threatening.”; “Is a (Good) Service Dog”; “Adam will not cope with the loss”. 'Cons': “He” “Is” “A” “Demon”. 

Charlotte opened her eyes and kept staring at the mirror, hoping the reflection would somehow stop reflecting her and actually gave her an answer. It didn’t happen.

What was troubling her the most about all of this wasn’t even this particular situation. What troubled her was, how many demons were actually like Bob. How many souls had she sent back to hell that somehow managed to co-exist with the rest of us.

Bob hadn’t embezzled his story. He had told her what he had wanted to do, no matter how bad it had made him look, and how he did it in the beginning and then just stopped, didn’t feel the need to be evil anymore. How many were there just like him?

How many soulless bodies did she have laying by her feet, that maybe were just trying to be normal humans? 

There were a lot of evil people in the world, that weren’t possessed and still made terrible deeds.

So why not the other way around?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!! Cookies for y'all.
> 
> 1) I have no idea what to call this. 2) This hasn't been beta-ed 3) please comment and review and leave kudos


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